General Questions, (for Shadowrun Missions) Options

[DR.PaiN]

I've played a considerable amount of LA, and there isn't a mod that just houses the PCs with anything approaching the Azzie Death Squad. Thats the Death Squad at Tier 1. At higher Karma lvls the shamans are intiates and there are more of them. I believe at the highest Tier in that mod, there are 4 4th lvl initiates, and they come packing great form nature spirits. In addition to the 8 razor boys.

[TinkerGnome]

Play up an APL on Serpentine Path. I saw a full table of level seven and eight players play through at APL 8. The first fight, five of the six were dead, and the last one severely wounded. And that was just the normal encounter. There's a beast in Grains of Sand which could hand out a similar amount of death, given a few rounds. Not to mention those poor bastards who had a pack of hunting dogs at GenCon 2002 for Assault.

By the same token, I know of at least a five places in LA where they put in instant death items. Generally, attacking town guards will end with you dead. Breaking certain laws will get you dead. Ignoring any warning the module repeats more than twice will get you dead. They just tend not to put in numbers for the NPCs that do it. At least with the death squad you have a (slim) shot ;)

[edit] Of course, I've also seen two LA modules finished in less than an hour (one in twenty minutes) because the PCs were apparently smarter than the writers. Saw that in LG, too, come to think of it...[/edit]

[edit2]Sorry, that third sentance should end "by the end of the first round". Otherwise it's just not impressive.[/edit]

[Goro]

Hello,

I played VS and I am very much looking forward to SRM (unfortunate acronym, though-haha). Anyway, can you give us any idea when we can expect to see the character creation guidelines ready?

thanks again

[Goro]

OK, so I am an idiot, I just saw another forum category devoted to character creation. Sorry about that.

[Joe_SmilingMoon]

We made it through the jungle Run. We had five people, none very experienced, one a complete newbie (and playing the Face straight out of the book)
We survived the last encounter by the skin of our teeth.
Two of our number were unconscious and I was the least wounded with Severe +1 phys and Severe +3 stun. Of course, I was so covered in icky blood and jungle goop that I had to cast a Force 3 Makeover spell afterward... and failed the drain test.
But that's what a Cat Shaman does! Meow, baby. 8)

[Goro]

Hello,

I have a "general question" for the new Shadowrun Missions campaign concerning the two year story arcs. Basically, when the two year arc is over, will we have to roll up new characters, or will we be able to use our "current" characters for the next story arc?

thanks

[TinkerGnome]

[Buzzed]

bitrunner, in the introduction, it states:

"The first scenario will be called Mission Briefing and will be able to run in 2 hours (in case you need a couple of hours to teach new players how to play SR) or up to 4 hours (for those that already know how to play)."

I am a bit confused about this, did you mean 4 hours for newbies and 2 hours for those that know how to play?

[KarmaInferno]

You can run it in any timeframe from 2-4 hours, depending on how much actual play time you need.

For a newbie table, the standard four-hour convention game slot might be half taken up by character generation, leaving two hours to play.

In an experienced table, you can spend the whole four hour time slot playing.

[bitrunner]

Well, i'm glad to see we're starting to get some activity on here!

Goro asks:

[Buzzed]

I have a good question about online play.

Let's say someone I know plays Shadowrun but does not have a computer. Can we both play online using my computer in the same session playing seperate characters?

[bitrunner]

You're right! That is a good question!... :)

To be honest, i don't think that would be possible...i don't think you can run two separate logins for messenger programs from the same computer, unless you're using XP and flip-flopping between accounts - that would be a pain. i'm not sure about OpenRPG, but i doubt that allows it either.

it's something we'll have to check into and think about...

[Adam]

Trillian [and I suspect other third party IM systems for other platforms] allow multiple logins using different accounts to the same service without a problem.

[DarusGrey]

I can confirm what he said about trillian..*hugs his trillain pro*

[CanvasBack]

Well, I hope this isn't out of place but here it goes...

Since you guys are planning on doing an online gaming option for SR:Missions, has any thought been given to doing a Decker Campaign/Story Arc exclusively through the internet? This would give folks who want to play deckers a fix without the "bogging down" of regular play. It could be done in a way that the Decker Campaign and the regular version were linked, datasteals in one lead to runs in the other, decker contacts in one game might be PCs in the other track and how well they run the Matrix the night before might determine whether or not they have a relavent piece of info for you, heck you might allow a combat decker to participate in both within certain guidelines. I don't know, just something to chew on I suppose... :wobble:

[Buzzed]

This could be a great opportunity for FanPro to develope software specifically for roleplaying over the internet. There are already people working on the idea and are dabbling around in making visual aid programs. Someone just needs to take these ideas and mold them into a final product that could quite possibly change the future of role playing.

A market where your books are finally useful online! Who is going to step up to the challenge?

[Deacon]

[Deacon]

[bitrunner]

Before someone else beats me to it...Adam Jury is actually the one that does the website, not Bull...

As for the decker stuff...well, I don't want to say too much, but for those that were involved with VS beforehand, you might remember me mentioning a little about this...

basically, my initial goal will be for there to be some online way to have deckers go to a website and do something (planning on some kind of Flash prog att) that will give them a "password". that way, they don't know what the result of the hack was - they take that password and go to the convention or game day, and when they play the event, they tell the GM that they want to try to hack into the matrix to do some legwork on the target, and give them the password. the gm would then have a sheet with the various passwords for that month, and what they result out to...

BUT, and a big but...that takes money, unless someone out there wants to volunteer their time and energy to working with me on this...i had a programmer working on it here where i work, but he's been laid off, and he never got anywhere past the planning stage, as i was having to teach him the terms and basics of the game so that the look and feel would be there...

[TinkerGnome]

A similar idea might be that a "Shadowlands node" could be hosted online and people with Shadowlands as a contact get a passcode to get on, etc. It'd take a bit of effort, but it could provide campaign hints and clues, as well as other Shadowlands type adventure hooks and hints. Maybe even passcodes for corp sites and their security proceedures, etc.

[edit]The upside is that the code would be as simple as a private message board or a board with required registration and approval via the passcode.[/edit]

[CanvasBack]

Hey Deacon, Thhhhhhhptttt! :nyah:


:wavey:


I'd volunteer to help you bitrunner but I'm no programmer.

[Buzzed]

[Adam]

Bear in mind that, historically, computer game aids for RPGs have not sold particularly well. There are some success stories - for example, Heavy Metal Pro for Classic BattleTech - but also many failures: Most of the D&D-related utilities, the Vampire: the Masquerade set of applications, etc.

I'd assume the best way to get FanPro to seriously consider publishing electronic components for Shadowrun is to approach them with a proposal. I doubt Rob has the time or the resources to query a bunch of independant software houses to see if they'll do some contract work for him.

[bitrunner]

to my understanding though, Microsoft holds all the licensing options for any Shadowrun related software...i don't know if that means just games, or if it includes gaming aids as well...could be wrong...

certainly, if we don't charge money for it, like something web based, then i don't think it is an issue...the character generator is a prime example...

my company could certainly do the work, but the key ingredient here is money - how much would FanPro be willing to back for such a project? what would be the return on investment?? personally - i don't think we'll see much of anything unless we do it ourselves...

[Buzzed]

Here is an off-the-wall idea.

Bundle the software CD with the main book, or simply advertise it throughout the books to direct players to a server for download.